Bowe Bergdahl: Guilt by Association with Obama

The Republican furor over the release of American POW Bowe Bergdahl just doesn’t make any sense — that is, unless you think of Sgt. Bergdahl as a stand-in for President Obama.

The Army soldier has not even set foot on U.S. soil after being held captive by the Taliban for nearly five years in Afghanistan. And yet, Bergdahl, 28, has been tried and convicted in the media, accused of being a deserter, a terrorist sympathizer, and anything and everything but a child of God. Obama struck a deal securing the soldier’s release in exchange for America’s release of five Taliban prisoners. The President ignored the law requiring him to inform Congress of the transfer of the Taliban prisoners 30 days in advance, and he is not apologizing.

Bergdahl’s parents are now receiving death threats, according to the FBI, amid allegations that six soldiers were killed searching for the solider. Bob Bergdahl, Bowe’s father, who is a Republican, has been called a traitor, a Muslim and a supporter of the Taliban, while the rightwing echo chamber at Fox wants him to shave his beard because he looks like a Muslim.

Bob Bergdahl, Bowe’s father, who is a Republican, has been called a traitor, a Muslim and a supporter of the Taliban, while the rightwing echo chamber at Fox wants him to shave his beard because he looks like a Muslim.

Without a shred of evidence to substantiate the claim that Bowe Bergdahl did something unethical, illegal or immoral while serving his country, critics are ready to tar and feather the man and impeach the President at the same time. There will be an investigation, to be sure, and the GOP faithful are chomping at the bit.

And say what you will about U.S. policy in Afghanistan, the blunders and the real questions about why the U.S. went over there in the first place, but it is certain that Bergdahl was a volunteer in the U.S. Army in the first place. And while we don’t have all of the facts, we don’t need the whole story to know the military does not leave its soldiers behind. So why should this soldier be any different?

Then there is the issue of hypocrisy among GOP lawmakers who urged for the man’s release — that is, until he was actually released from captivity and became another success story for the White House. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) said he would support such a deal four months ago but backtracked just days ago once the deal was done. The detractors are lining up to lambaste Obama, and yet they have failed to offer any alternative solutions.

Further, there are reports that Bergdahl escaped twice. And now he is telling the people treating him in an American medical facility in Germany that the Taliban beat and tortured him and held him in a cage after his escape attempt. If true, this bolsters Obama’s decision to act and could spell trouble for his Republican critics who would politicize that which should not be political. It is a new low, even for barrel scrapers in the Tea Party and on Fox News.

Apparently all of this Republican criticism is too much for commentator Juan Williams — the lone wolf in the Fox wilderness who believes America should be loving Bergdahl rather than focusing on his father’s beard or other extraneous matters.

The cold hard fact is Sgt. Bergdahl has become a proxy for President Obama. The Republicans have made a living profiting from white resentment over black progress.

The cold hard fact is Sgt. Bergdahl has become a proxy for President Obama. The Republicans have made a living profiting from white resentment over black progress. They have opposed any program that will benefit African-Americans, even if whites will benefit as well. When one of those black people became the president, they shifted their focus to ensuring Obama fails at everything.

Lacking a legislative agenda, the President’s foes have nothing in their game but crass political ploys and bottom-of-the-barrel gimmicks. They were unable to stop an Obama victory in 2008 and failed to kill Obamacare or stop his 2012 reelection. After failing to impeach him for being a president while black — and despite their futile attempts to label Obama an Arab, a Muslim, a Kenyan, a fascist-socialist-Communist and everything else — President Obama’s successes continue, despite dysfunction in Congress. Demonizing the President did not work, so Bergdahl and his father will do for now.

The Republicans, though mostly chickenhawks, usually position themselves as pro-military and would normally gravitate towards someone such as Bowe Bergdahl. But supporting the soldier does not support their narrative, which is that Obama must not succeed. And Obama looking good does not look good for Republicans.

Meanwhile, there is proof the Republicans were trying to play both sides of the fence and were prepared to condemn Obama had he failed to secure Bergdahl’s release. Last Thursday, D.C. sanitation workers found half a million signs dumped behind the Republican National Committee headquarters which read “IMPEACH OBAMA FOR LEAVING AN AMERICAN BEHIND IN AFGHANISTAN.”

About David A. Love

BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor, David A. Love, JD, is a lawyer and journalist based in Philadelphia, and a contributor to the Progressive Media Project, McClatchy-Tribune News Service, In These Times and Philadelphia Independent Media Center. He contributed to the book, States of Confinement: Policing, Detention, and Prisons (St. Martin's Press, 2000). Love is a former Amnesty International UK spokesperson, organized the first national police brutality conference as a staff member with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and served as a law clerk to two Black federal judges. His blog is davidalove.com.

Comments

I want you to write an article after all the facts are known. I want you to post it here, telling us the true facts concerning all those involved in this complex story.
I want you to include each point you have addressed here. You really have no idea what has happened as you do not have the work skills others have to know how and why a person acts in combat. You are what we know as a desk jockey. Not a bad thing,, but a thing that knows almost nothing about men in combat, how they got there, what they do, and the rules of doing all they do. I will give you some notes to research. My PMOS was 971AH and my SMOS was 972A. I will use my skills in these areas to come to my conclusion.
I was a person who gathered information, assimilated it into understandable reports, without my own opinions. You on the other hand do much the opposite of me. You assimilate your ideas into a report of which you approve and contains your assumptions. I suggest you wait for the facts to come out, as will I, and then write about what happened. I must say that your opinions will not be as valuable as those of men who served with the subject as they are a far better whiteness than you are of what he did and why he did it. They have what is know as first hand knowledge and your info is third hand at best.
Anyone who leaves his military gear at his combat base and walks off on his own is not on an intelligence mission. I know this because I took my gear with me.

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